eat mansion at the rear of a court and had
two wings giving on the street. A wall furnished with a large gate and
two small grilled doors stretched from wing to wing.

When our three Guisards reached the end of the Rue de Bethizy, which is
a continuation of the Rue des Fosses Saint Germain l'Auxerrois, they saw
the hotel surrounded by Swiss, by soldiers, and by armed citizens; every
one had in his right hand either a sword or a pike or an arquebuse, and
some held in their left hands torches, shedding over the scene a fitful
and melancholy glare which, according as the throng moved, shifted along
the street, climbed the walls; or spread over that living sea where
every weapon cast its answering flash.

All around the hotel and in the Rues Tirechappe, Etienne, and Bertin
Poiree the terrible work was proceeding. Long shouts were heard, there
was an incessant rattle of musketry, and from time to time some wretch,
half naked, pale, and drenched in blood, leaped like a hunted stag into
the circle of lugubrious light where a host of fiends seemed to be at
work.

In an instant Coconnas, Maurevel, and La Huriere, accredited by their
white crosses, and received with cries of welcome, were in the thickest
of this struggling, panting mob. Doubtless they would not have been able
to advance had not some of the throng recognized Maurevel and made way
for him. Coconnas and La Huriere followed him closely and the three
therefore contrived to get into the court-yard.

In the centre of this court-yard, the three doors of which had been
burst open, a man, around whom the assassins formed a respectful circle,
stood leaning on his drawn rapier, and eagerly looking up at a balcony
about fifteen feet above him, and extending in front of the principal
window of the hotel.

This man stamped impatiently on the ground, and from time to time
questioned those that were nearest to him.

"Nothing yet!" murmured he. "No one!--he must have been warned and has
escaped. What do you think, Du Gast?"

"Impossible, monseigneur."

"Why? Did you not tell me that just before we arrived a man,
bare-headed, a drawn sword in his hand, came running, as if pursued,
knocked at the door, and was admitted?"

"Yes, monseigneur; but M. de Besme came up immediately, the gates were
shattered, and the hotel was surrounded."

"The man went in sure enough, but he has not gone out."

"Why," said Coconnas to La Huriere, "if my eyes do not deceive me, I
see Monsieu